The Unexpected Avatar
by EnderDragoon
Summary: Aang feels an unusual connection to a young Water Bender of the Southern Water Tribe and his task as The Avatar is not yet over. Takes place mostly ASC 114. Name Changed from Unexpected Healer. Please Review.
1. Arrival

Chapter 1 - Arrival

Their journey had been long and dangerous, dodging Fire Navy ship after another and never seeing outside their Water Benders generated fog to conceal their ship had made it feel very isolated. Water gently lapped against the hull as it slowly cut through the shallow waves. The crisp cool frigid air of the Southern Waters felt alien on his face. He stood at the bow of the ship, squinting into the thick mist but he could hardly identify anything as the sunlight of dawn barely pierced the vapor. They had been closely following the coast of the icy continent said to be home to the Southern Water Tribe. Their voyage was nearly over.

"Arnak, you should come below, we've prepared the last of the food" Khanra almost whispered as she approached behind him, with her arms crossed over her very pregnant belly.

"You can have my share, you're eating for two." Arnak turned to search for the fishing equipment, giving his wife the best smile he could muster in his exhausted state. Before he passed her she grabbed his shoulder and pointed ahead of the ship. His gaze followed her finger; he could barely make out the outline of a small, but unnatural, wall set against the shoreline. "I'll get Pakku."

Khanra followed him below deck as he went to where their captain usually sits in his back corner of the ship, with one lantern slowly swinging with the roll of the ship casting ominous shadows. As usual, Pakku had his maps out across the barrels he used as a desk.

"Master Pakku, you're needed on the deck; we believe we have spotted the village." Pakku slowly straightened his back, blinked a few times, then looked at him. Without saying a word the grumpy old man passed them with a mumble, headed up the ladder to the deck and over to the helmsmen. Pakku raised his right hand to about his shoulder height, palm down and quickly lowers it making a fist as if grabbing a fly in front of him. The fog around their ships instantly fell into the water like rain, as if it had been waiting impatiently to succumb to gravity. They could clearly see the village now, the sun half risen over its walls.

It was smaller than Arnak assumed it would be, much smaller. They were told that the Southern Water Tribe used to be a great city, like in the north; but the war had been less kind to their sister village. An obvious scar pierced into the village from the ocean through the wall, he recognized that a Fire Navy ship had breached their defenses much the same way they had several weeks ago during The Siege of the North. These people undoubtedly have lived a struggled past. As they neared the port just outside the village entrance several children and elderly women gathered around to watch with confused faces. He put an arm around his wife and held her close.

"Our crossing is at an end my people," Pakku called out to all the crewmembers and passengers aboard his ship that Arnak hadn't noticed had all come to the upper deck to see the village and their new home. Pakku quickly bended an ice bridge to their ship and was the first to step off the ship when they beached into the snowy bank of their docking ramp. One of the elderly women he didn't recognize gasped and stepped forward from their crowd. Pakku approached the woman, spoke a few words Arnak couldn't hear and finally turned and motioned for everyone to begin unloading the ship.

Over the next few weeks the ships that had left the Northern Water Tribe arrived at the now rapidly growing Southern Water City. With the now several dozen igloo huts the establishment looked nothing like the village it was when they first arrived. The new arrivals quickly became good friends and neighbors of the native tribe. With many hands able to fish and tend to the village necessities, and now with benders around, the city's people began to flourish once more. The scar left by Zuko's fire ship had been expanded and became the start of their new dock. A town hall was erected at the center of the city and one wing of it was established as a school to teach all the kids. Even though the Northern Water Tribe members greatly outnumbered the natives still there, they decided to adopt the Southern Water Tribes traditions and way of life. Pakku, along with his students, built a new barricade around the city that a Fire Navy ship would think twice before ramming again.

*****

Arnak was furious, he wanted to be in the healers hut with his wife, especially now. Khanra was in pain and he couldn't be at her side. She was in labor with their child and Kanna, the Southern Water Tribes Senior Elder, had thrown him out. He stormed back and forth in front of the entrance with clenched fists.

One of the assistants leaned around the bearskin hanging over the doorway and motioned for him to come inside. He knew something was wrong by the look on her face.

"I'm sorry," Kanna said in a hoarse voice not looking up at him as he entered the small room. Khanra was breathing heavily with sweat streaming down her face. Kanna turned around with a small child crying in her arms and handed the baby to Khanra. Kanna finally shifted her gaze to Arnak who stood frozen just inside the entrance, "Your wife is not likely to survive the delivery. She's lost a lot of blood and there's nothing I can do. We need a healer and your wife is the only one in the city. However she's in no condition to be able to bend."

Arnak walked up to her side, trembling with joy and sadness, he was too confused to speak. How could the spirits give him one life and take another at the same time? He placed his hand on his wife's shoulder and stared into the bright blue eyes of his daughter.

"Kytah," Khanra weakly whispered with a smile to their child. "Take care of her Arnak."

Update 5-6-09

I need to know what you readers think of the story, I'm writing blind at the moment without your feedback. Do you like the characters? Am I going to fast with just plot and I should add more goofing off? I _need_ your reviews.

Thanks for reading, its kept me writing.


	2. Companion

Chapter 2 - Companion

Kytah always enjoyed sailing with papa, he never let her out of his sight, and this time he was going to teach her how use a fishing line. Papa says they don't have to fish this way anymore because water benders can catch all they need to eat for a week with the snap of a finger. She'd watched her father fish with a net often; he preferred to work for his meals even though there was a surplus stored in the city. When she had asked him why, he had only said "if we forget how to waterbend, hopefully someone remembers how to catch." She watched as papa adjusted a few ropes and lowered the sail. She could feel the water's resistance slowly bring the ship to a stop. Even though she was not tall enough to see over the railing, she always felt like she could feel what the water was doing around her.

Papa came over to her and handed her a pole with a fishing line attached on the end. "It's just like the toy whip you have at home, but instead of swinging it back again, you just let the end go out into the water." She did as he suggested and it worked on the first time, she clearly heard the _plop_ of the bobber, bait, and hook breaking the surface of the water. She closed her eyes and imagined the weight of the bait sinking through the water.

Papa sat down next to her and stared up at the clouds. He had always been a patient and quiet person.

"What was mama like?" she asked after a few minutes. He turned his head away from her; she tried to find what he was looking at.

"She was a great waterbender," he said after a minute. "She saved so many lives during the war. Your grandmother, Yugoda, taught her how to heal and she did it with so little effort, they said she was a prodigy healer."

"What's a prodigy healer?"

"Someone so special with healing they could almost revive the dead."

Kytah had a hard time understanding what it meant to revive the dead. "Papa?" she meant to ask him more, but when he turned to face her he saw he had a tear going down his face. "Why are you crying?"

"It's nothing dear, concentrate on your fishing, papa will be right back." He patted her on the head, got up and went below deck. Kytah was confused, but smiled back.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes again and tried to picture the hook drifting around in the subtle currents of the water under the ship. She wanted to catch a big fish so her father would be proud of her. She imagined a cute little baby water dragon circling around it curious about it. She had learned about water dragons in school, how the last ones were hunted down by the Fire Nation years ago when they were all bad guys. But the pictures they had in class were of dragons that were bigger than the city's huge whale hunting ship. The one she had in her mind seemed to be much smaller and very curious about the fishing line.

She opened her eyes and saw the bright blue and white colored whelpling flapping furiously in front of her with her fishing hook in its claws, and the bait missing. She almost screamed when she realized what was happening, but before she could she heard the little thing start talking to her, but its mouth wasn't moving.

_You dropped this._

The water dragon stopped hovering and settled on the wood deck just 3 feet from her, and placed the hook between them staring at her with its head twisted slightly to one side.

"AHH, PAPA!" she couldn't help herself, she screamed as loud as she could, and dropped the fishing pole but she was too terrified to move. The little creature jumped from being startled and ran on its four legs to behind a wood crate next to the cabin. Papa came crashing up from below deck with a bone tipped spear in hand and ran over to Kytah looking out over the side of the boat for a threat. The dragon poked its head out from around the crate keeping very close to the floor as if ashamed for making a mistake. Kytah tugged on Papas pant leg and pointed at the creature. He looked where she was pointing and shifted his stance as if ready to counter an attack. Now though Kytah didn't feel any fear of the whelpling, in fact she felt somehow very safe with its presence, almost as if it could protect her.

She crawled over to it and Arnak didn't realize she was moving towards it till she was out of his range to stop her. But the thing crawled out slowly around the corner and approached her cautiously. Kytah reached out with both arms wide open, as if to hug it, and it jumped into her lap and curled up and made a humming almost chirp-like purring sound.

Kytah was absolutely glowing with joy; she turned towards Arnak and asked "Oh Papa! Can I keep him?!" The dragon immediately stopped purring and looked up at Kytah with a quizzical chirp. "Err, can I keep her?" she corrected herself. The creature jumped up onto her shoulder and they both looked at Arnak with an 'aw, please daddy' look.

Arnak slowly lowered his spear and accepted his daughter's new friend. He had reservations about a mysterious creature being so close to her, but the spirits be dammed if he's going to take something from his Kytah that makes her happy.

He set the spear aside and crouched down to inspect the thing closer. "I suppose," he half smiled. "But keep it here on the ship till I talk to the elders when we get back. Man, and all I caught was a sickly fish on my first fishing trip." Arnak rubbed the back of his neck, stood up, and started moving towards the main sail's rigging without taking an eye off Kytah and her new companion frantically buzzing around her making her giggle uncontrollably.

By the time they pulled into the docking marina, which Pakku had made big enough to fit dozens of ships, which at times still felt crowded with all the merchant ships filling the ports for products that could only be acquired at the Southern Water Tribe, Arnak had become more comfortable with their new family member. He couldn't help but imagine what the creature would be like in 20 years. Are they going to be feeding it whales every day? He had heard stories about the Unagi's mammoth size. Once they pulled up to his usual docking spot and tied off the ship with plenty of slack as the moon can be moody with its tides around here.

"I want you to stay below deck till I return," Arnak explained to Kytah. "I don't know what people would do if they saw your friend." He was nervous about leaving his daughter alone on his ship, but he couldn't think of anything safer for her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Ok Papa," Kytah said like she has a hundred times out of habit, obviously distracted with the dragon chasing a firefly around that she had released from the lantern.

Arnak turned and ran off the ship, the sun was just setting as he made it through the city gates and sprinted in the direction of the town center where Pakku could usually be found this time of day. The City always amazed him every time he saw it, with its towering lighthouses, impenetrably massive walls, and icy cathedral-like structures everywhere he looked.

A short time later he made it to the City Hall and found Pakku, Kanna, Hakoda and few foreign representatives, by the looks of their clothes, discussing something on the other side of the room around a table. Arnak stopped at the entry way a respectful distance to not intrude in their conversation and bowed when they noticed his presence.

"Arnak, my good friend, please join us, it's not like were arguing about anything important" Pakku said, putting one elbow and one hand on the table with a smile. The other foreigners looked at him with confusion. Clearly they didn't know Pakku's sarcastic sense of humor. Arnak half jogged up to the long narrow table across from where Pakku was sitting. Once he got close enough that Pakku saw his concerned expression he got serious and excused himself from the conversation. With one hand out towards Arnak to beckoned him to the other side of the hall where they could speak in private. Arnak explained to Pakku his situation with discovering a creature he'd only heard of and believed to be extinct.

"I believe we should consult The Avatar, he has more knowledge of these things," Pakku suggested. Arnak had only met The Avatar on rare occasions, and only because he lived here with his wife at the Southern Water Capital whenever they weren't traveling. He had only heard rumors about what they were doing, most thought he was attempting to revive the Air Nomads, he could only imagine what it would be like to live with his loss.

They made their way to the Avatar's dwelling, the citizens of the city beginning to set out lanterns to light the streets for the coming night as the moon would not be out. As they neared the house they found Katara carrying a large jug of water just a few steps outside their doorway.

"Student, you've missed yesterday's lesson" Pakku said in a very stern voice, Katara froze in her tracks and almost dropped the water. She wheeled around to see her grandfather grinning with victory over still being able to scare his subjects.

"Right and I was your student like 8 years ago?" Katara said with a confident voice.

"We have a need to consult the Avatar."

"I told you, just call him Aang. He's family you know." She held the door open for them, greeting them to proceed inside. Arnak followed them inside and found The Avatar with his back towards the doorway sitting in front of the fire in the middle of the room tending a pot of soup. Aang had grown considerably since he first met him during the Siege of the North, now generously taller than Katara, yet still appeared to be as nimble and athletic as he was all those years ago.

"Aang, it's good to see you again, make any progress on your last trip?" Pakku asked as Katara set the pale down in the kitchen. Aang turned around as if just realizing there were other people in the room other then Katara, and glanced across the new faces and instantly put on his goofy signature grin.

Arnak was beginning to grow inpatient, didn't he explain to Pakku he left his daughter _alone_ on his ship with a potentially dangerous creature he didn't fully trust yet?

"Arnak right? You've come here for my help I assume, is everything ok?" The Avatar seemed to be able to see straight through you to what's important. Aang stood up and retrieved his staff glider from its place on the wall as if getting ready to leave.

Arnak again explained his situation to The Avatar who understood his eagerness to return to the ship. "We'll get there faster if we take Appa; he hasn't had any exercise today anyways." Arnak felt surprised, he'd never talked to The Avatar before today and now he was going to be riding on his sky bison, the last known surviving bison, as if they had been friends for years. The Avatar really was an amazing person.

Pakku had left to return to the City Hall. Once they put out the fire they all gathered up on Appa, who had his own shelter nearly bigger than the house itself and lifted off for their short flight over the city to the docks.

"Kytah is her name right? I hear so many names I forget them often," Aang called out over the sound of the gentle wind from Appa's head. "What is she now? Seven years old?"

"She just turned eight a few weeks ago, I'm surprised you remembered," Arnak was growing anxious to return to his daughter.

"I'm certain she's fine, I'd be able to tell if anyone in the city is in distress," Aang reassured him.

They landed on the deck of the ship with remarkable agility, which was barely able to fit the still growing air bending bison. Arnak had already jumped off the saddle before the creature completely touched down, darted down to where he left Kytah and found her still bursting with laughter. Was it just his imagination or had the dragon grown a slight fraction in the time he was gone?

"Sorry Papa," Kytah exclaimed once she noticed he had returned. She pointed towards the bait barrels, which were toppled over and evidently raided. "I guess she got hungry."

"She, huh?" The Avatar stated as he came down the steps into the bowels of the ship, which Arnak suddenly felt embarrassed for not cleaning up his cargo hold before having such esteemed company aboard. Aang made his way over to Kytah and sat down next to her as the little creature settled down in her lap and squawked at The Avatar.

"She has a striking similarity to Fang."

"Fang?" Arnak and Kytah asked at the same time.

"Avatar Roku's animal guide, a dragon" Katara answered, almost in a yawning tone of voice. Clearly Katara and Aang had seen many things in their past travels.

"And yet very different still, perhaps a Water Bending Dragoon? She's very taken with you Kytah," Aang continued while closely studying the dragon. "I feel like I know you from somewhere Kytah."

"I believe she may be a Water Bender as well," Arnak explained, not certain why he felt so open to tell the Avatar everything. He hadn't even mentioned these things to his own daughter, who was staring at him with mild confusion, as if only curious but not hurt why he thought this.

"Let's find out," Katara says as she approaches Kytah. Arnak feels a growing concern that this might be moving too fast for his daughter, but she had always been exceptionally bright at learning new concepts. Katara held her hand out in front of her as if something was moving towards her that she was readying to block. She stepped back with her left leg and made a fist with the remaining hand, assuming a traditional Water Bending stance.

Arnak realized the air in the ship began to feel incredibly dry, he watched as vapor formed, almost cloudlike, and rushed towards her outstretched hand condensing to be more drop-like. Within seconds she had pulled water out of literally thin air, and formed a descent ball of water hovering in front of her. Aang watched her with a proud almost sentimental smile on his face, appearing to remember how they used to work together.

Katara lowered the water into nearby wide wooden pan on the floor. "Here Kytah, try this for a moment," Katara moves her hands over the water as if washing an invisible surface in the air and the water made wave motions on the surface. "This is pushing and pulling the water. The key is getting wrist movement right. It's more difficult than it looks so don't be disappointed if it doesn't come to you right away." Aang had a quiet chuckle, apparently an inside joke.

Kytah stood up and excitedly scurried over to Katara, barely able to contain herself. She mimicked her movements and evidently was able to manipulate the water when Katara stopped and the motion continued. The baby dragon half flew half crawled its way over to the pale of water and rocked its head and neck back and forth in synchronization with the wave. Just as Kytah started to grow the wave over the side of the container, the creature made a sneezing cough-like action towards the water and it instantly froze the whole thing solid.

"She's an Ice Dragon!" Aang almost yelled getting up to rush over to her, startling everyone in the room.

"I need to get some fresh air" Arnak calmly stated and went back up the stairs.

"So, Kytah, does she have a name yet?" Katara asked, kneeling down to get a closer look at it.

"Glaciera" Kytah answers, gently patting it on its tiny head with her miniature hand, causing her to hum again.

"Kytah, would you like to learn to Water Bend?"

"You could teach me?"

"You'd have to make sure your father is ok with it."

"Ok!" Kytah jumped up and held out her arm for Glaciera to join her, who hopped up her forearm and perched on her shoulder while she left the cargo hold, leaving Aang and Katara alone.

"Pretty exciting day eh?" Aang tells Katara.

"If I remember right she's the child whose mother died just after delivery only a few weeks after they got here from the northern tribe," Katara recounted. "Her mother, Khanra, was one of their best healers too."

"I'm getting an odd vibe from her, like I know her from somewhere, maybe it's nothing."

"How come we've never had any children Aang?" Katara asked, startling Aang who didn't know what to say.

Before he could respond Arnak returned from above with Kytah close behind him, "I'll allow her to proceed with her training. She hasn't been away from me for any length of time until tonight. But I trust you Katara and Mr. Avatar; I believe she's in good hands."

"Please, just call me Aang. I believe Glaciera is pretty harmless at the moment, however dragons tend to grow quickly, and it might only be a few months before she will be too big for your shoulder." Aang changed his attention directly to Kytah, "Dragons make great companions, Kytah, your bond will only grow stronger over time and some day she'll be able to protect you if you're ever in danger."

Kytah proudly looked up at Glaciera, who jumped from her shoulder to trying to curl up on her small head and almost loosing balance, throwing her into another fit of laughter.


	3. Journey

Chapter 3 - Journey

Katara felt like she had not only become Kytah's trainer, but had also become a motherly figure for her in Khanra's absence. Kytah had learned Water Bending with extraordinary ease; she could almost manage as much water at a time as Katara could, but with remarkable precision. Katara however vowed to never teach her, or anyone, Blood Bending, she hoped Kytah would never need such a horrible skill. In this time of peace it simply didn't make sense anymore.

Kytah traveled with Katara and Aang intermittently when they left the Southern Water Tribe. Aang now being the world's diplomat as The Avatar was constantly being summed around the globe to settle disputes that cropped up on occasion, rarely were his skills as The Avatar actually used. In fact Katara couldn't think of any time he's gone to the Avatar State since his final fight with the Phoenix King.

Glaciera had grown quickly over the past 6 years, now exceedingly too big to ride on Kytah shoulder. In fact the Ice Dragon was nearly big enough for her to ride on, which they had tried a few times but decided to wait another year or two. Glaciera, however, had become good friends with Appa and Momo, and flew alongside them during their journeys.

"So where's our next stop?" Katara asked as she sat down next to Aang, who was studying a map, and offered him a cup of Iroh Jasmine Tea. He wouldn't drink anything else it seemed. They had landed at a small outcropping on a river bank like they always tried to find, they preferred sleeping in the wild still instead of staying at Inn after Inn at the villages they passed. Mingling in any town for more than a few minutes usually drew a crowd and made leaving impossible.

"Well, we've got several days till were needed at the decommissioning of the Pohuai Stronghold," Aang replied in his 'we could stop here and here and here along the way' voice.

Kytah was a several paces away down the bank launching fish out of the water with her Water Bending into the air for Glaciera to catch, who was lazily circling above her. She insisted on wearing her Tribal Kimono, much like Katara, while traveling. Seeing the world, and hearing Aang and Katara talk about events and places they've been previously as they flew over familiar sites to them was always astonishing. Like when they passed over the forest the Fire Nation burned down during at the end of their struggle, just before The Avatars final fight with Ozai. Katara and Aang explained how her brother, Sokka, managed to take down a whole fleet of airships, but Aang had difficulty recounting the events of the fight, he rarely talked about that encounter with anyone, and Kytah felt rather privileged to be hearing it from him.

"I think we should head to the Mining Village, perhaps we can find some people with Air Nomad ancestry there."

"You really think there might be ancestors there?"

"Well they were nomads, and after their temples were destroyed I bet they wandered all over the world trying to find new homes. We're here at the base of the Kolau Mountains, if we head down river and northwest up the coast we should get there sometime tomorrow."

"You know it's my 14th birthday in a few weeks too," Kytah stated as she made her way back to the camp.

Aang stopped to think for a second before releasing their large earth tent back to the ground with a gentle rumble. Toph had showed them how to make an earthy home in second's years ago.

"We should be done at Pohuai by then, I'm sure we could get you back to the South Pole before your birthday. I hear they're letting girls do the Ice Dodging now," Aang winked at Kytah. "I bet your father would take you."

Kytah hadn't considered that, she always assumed it was more for the warriors and leaders of the tribe to do. However they were in the habit of bending traditions recently. "I'm not certain I'd be able to pull it off."

"You've nearly mastered Water Bending," Katara reminded her. "Sokka made Aang and I do Bending when we went out with Bato on his Ice Dodging of rocks. You'll do fine."

Glaciera was walking behind and to the side of her with her long neck stretched out putting her head in front of Kytah where she was absent mindedly rubbing her favorite spot between her two small horns. Glaciera was nearly 15 feet long now, and Kytah affectionately leaned over her neck in thought.

******

Sokka watched Suki stumble out of their bedroom and walked clumsily into the kitchen to pour herself a steaming cup of tea. He smiled as she took a sip and was startled by how hot it still was. She was only wearing a long shirt that failed to hide her features. Sokka had returned to Kyoshi Island with Suki to help rebuild after the damage they had done by coming there in the first place years ago. When they weren't staying at the South Pole they lived in a small cottage at the edge of the beach just outside of town. He looked out the window and watched the gentle waves trying to push his father's ship around while it was tied at the pier. The boat seemed out of place in the tropical waters of the Earth Kingdom's region, he always pictured it crushing through ice sheets and nimbly dodging ice bergs.

The couch made of bamboo creaked as Suki sat down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulder.

"Toph should be arriving today. I wonder if the captain of the boat she's on knows to stay close to the shoreline to avoid the Unagi."

"I'm sure…. she'll be fine," Suki said between yawns, clearly still very groggy. "Toph knows how to take care of herself."

"I'm not worried about Toph, I'm worried about what she might do to the Unagi if it decides to jump them."

Almost on queue they saw Toph's little ship come around the southern tip of the bay, hugging almost dangerously close to the shoreline, cruising at an excellent speed for the wind available Sokka noted. They knew it was Toph's passenger boat because, unlike most of the world, Kyoshi Island was very quiet and didn't often have visitors, being so isolated from the major trading routes.

"You'd better get dressed," Sokka said to Suki's disappointment. "She's going to be here in a few minutes." Sokka got up from the couch, with a last glace at Suki, "Maybe she won't be able to tell you're not wearing anything?"

"I'd prefer not to underestimate her ability to sense people around her," Suki replied after finishing off her mug of tea. She got up and walked past him toward their bedroom to get ready.

"I'll meet you down at the docks when youre ready." Sokka had already packed his ship last night for the trip back to the Southern Water Capital, he knew Toph wasn't the type to sit around for hours catching up. Sokka headed out the door and sprinted down to the single pier as their ship just pulled up. Without seeing where it came from he caught the docking tether flying through the air and tied it off.

"Toph, it's great to see you again!" Sokka exclaimed as she stepped off the boat.

"Wish I could say the same," Toph stated flatly. Sokka was startled for a second before he realized it was just another of her blind jokes. "Heya Snoozles," she finally said with a smile, and walked past him to the beach. Sokka watched as she made a sigh of relief as she set foot on earth finally and collapsed into the sand making her signature sand angel.

"You seem like the sailin type lad." Sokka turned back toward the rough voice, clearly the captain of the vessel.

"She's my boat," Sokka said pointing toward his father's ship with pride. "You've got a pretty sweet ride though. Is this one of the new Trimarans from Teo inventions I've heard about?" Sokka walked over and touched the smooth surface of its starboard hull.

"The Bei Fong Family was kind 'nough ta buy this here ship fer me if I 'greed to take Toph where she needs to go from time ter time. The name's Lee, Cap'n Lee." Sokka shook his hand as he came down the ramp to the dock. "We'll I gots to be goin now, don't want ter get caught by them there Unagi. Good luck kid."

Sokka only watched him prepare for a minute before joining up with Toph who was now sitting up and talking to a very clothed Suki now. She wasn't wearing her complete Warriors Armor, but had the more casual appearing brown and green underclothes from the uniform on for the warm weather. Toph was wearing amazingly similar clothes to when they traveled together years ago, but she had grown noticeably since then. Toph was now just shorter than Sokka, and almost as built, most likely from all the rock tossing she's no doubt been doing. He heard that she was heading up a Civil Engineering Corps from Ba Sing Se, working hard to rebuild and expand cities in the Earth Kingdom.

"Ugh, I hated being in that wretched city," Sokka picked up on their conversation as he approached, "I know I'm needed there but it feels great to be outside and free again."

"You ladies ready to go?" Sokka asked interrupting their laughing.

"I just got off a boat, and now you want me to get on another and go to a place that has no earth and very little metal? Can't you give me just a minute to enjoy this beautiful ground?" Toph said in an annoyed voice as she rolled over to what Sokka could only imagine as hugging the entire planet. "By the way I found this on one of our projects," She said reaching into her bag on her back and pulled out a sheathed sword he had nearly forgotten about. She held it up as best as she could while still lying face down.

"SPACE SWORD!" Sokka exclaimed as he ran towards it with his hand eagerly outstretched in front of him. He ripped it out of Toph's grip and hugged it to his chest. "Thanks Toph," he said a little too quickly and made his way back to the docks.

"Why don't you just bring some earth with you on the boat? We've got a pretty light load returning to the South Pole," Suki suggested to Toph, whose face lit up the second she heard the idea.

"Great idea!" Toph nearly screamed as she jumped up and with her horse stance ripped a descent chunk of dirt from the ground and started running towards the boat. Sokka stopped dead in his tracks when he realized his Sun was just blocked out by a massive piece of misplaced earth. He turned to see Toph grinning way too much.

"Ok you can only bring half of it; I don't want my boat sinking because you can't contain yourself," Sokka demanded. Instantly the rock was split and half of it slid off into the water making a massive splash that managed to completely drench Sokka. Obviously the universe wasn't done with him.

Toph respectfully set the still massive chuck of earth on the deck and Sokka cringed as he heard the strong wooden frame of the ship creaking while absorbing the added weight. Toph then ran up the ramp and jumped on the mound of soft dirt as it eroded into a hill from gravity.

"Icy Hell here we come." Toph said from her earthy throne.


	4. Discovery

Chapter 4 - Discovery

She gripped her hand around the rudder handle; the wind had picked up and was gusting at an unpredictable rate. Waves crashed against the port side of the ship trying to knock it around like a toy, but she compensated for natures forces and rode the crest of the waves as best she could. Her father sat at the bow of the ship, gripping the railing to keep his balance, staring back at her with trusting eyes, he had built this craft in the northern waters and was one of his few possessions.

There weren't many obstacles around, but they were large ice burgs and the storm made them much more challenging to avoid. She grinned with confidence and adjusted the rudder as they hurtled towards the next massive floating ice block. The ship rolled with the wind and the starboard rail was near the waterline as she gave it intense steering inputs. Her two friends knew what they had to do, after all they were more experienced then her at sailing and had both already passed this test, granted not during these conditions. Ocean mist swelled over ship and demanded she give in to the storm, but she held her ground. The ship responded to her command and they dodged the obstacle, just. The tip of the mast grazed snow piled up on a ledge of the wall of ice. She relaxed on the rudder, and let the ship follow the wind more, it had done its job beautifully and Kytah almost cried with pride that her father had crafted such an excellent boat. Never before had she felt this connected to the ship, the water and nature.

They were just making it into the open water when she looked up and saw Glaciera circling above calling out joyous yelp-like calls of approval. She saw her father begin to rise congratulate her as she heard the distinct hollow cracking sound of enormous amounts of ice cracking. The towering ice sheet downwind of them was beginning to break.

She threw her weight into the rudder, begging the ship to be astonishing once more; she had to get away from the ice sheet as fast as possible before it dropped on them. She began to tack the ship into the wind; it was their only chance without knowing what part of the ice wall was to fall. Her father began to make his way over to her dodging her franticly reacting companions. Before he could make it to her the final cracking sounded and she looked up to see a wedge of ice 20 times the size of their craft began to fall just off their starboard side. The wave it was going to make would capsize the ship and she didn't know what to do. She looked back at her father with terror; there wasn't anything they could do.

****

Aang and Katara were huddled up with a bearskin blanket enjoying the fire and each other's company. They talked softly about their trip and how Kytah helped them dismantle the prison tower at Pohuai. It was particularly difficult for Aang to face this as he was held there as a prisoner until Zuko broke him free. Having Katara with him made him calm though. She was cuddled up to his chest, breathing softly while listening to his steady heartbeat. Aang hugged her tighter as he fell deep in thought.

_How come we've never had any children Aang?_

The words she spoke some years ago still rang in his ears. He had thought a great deal about what she asked, he didn't understand it either. They were happy together, he was 28 now and he felt responsible enough to be able to raise a family. _Why_ didn't they have any kids yet?

Whenever he imagined what it would be like to have a child he pictured Kytah mostly. He still didn't understand his connection to her; he knew it was something more than just friendship, but he had no way of describing it. He had tried on occasion to talk to Katara about it but she seemed simply puzzled. She knew him better than anyone, and she was a very smart woman, but she didn't have the connection to the spirit world that he did. Sometimes he felt things that others just couldn't comprehend.

"Something is wrong," Aang stated before he even realized what he was saying.

"Hrm? What's wrong?" Katara looked up at him. Aang wanted to slap himself in the face for breaking such a peaceful moment with her. But something was indeed wrong; someone close to him was in distress. He began to sit up, trying to feel who it was and where he was needed. He looked into Katara's eyes, certainly she didn't need any help and she was perfectly safe here. He slowly turned his head as if to hear something in the distance more clearly.

"Kytah, she's doing her Ice Dodging right now, something went wrong with it," Aang exhaled slowly, he couldn't get more than that. Katara stood up, she was only in her white bandage looking cloth stripped undergarments she always wore still and grabbed her kimono and parka, it was defiantly needed in the stormy frigid conditions outside. Aang followed suit and threw on his monk uniform's "umbrella" top as Kytah liked to call it. He snatched his glider and without a word they were already on Appa flying out over the frozen city in the direction they knew they went to Dodge.

*****

Kytah was petrified in the moment before the Ice came crashing down. She knew she could use water bending to mitigate the fall of the ice, or at least reduce the waves sure to follow, but she couldn't command her body to move. She'd never been in a position that needed her skills in such a way that she couldn't prepare for it. Where was the confidence she had just minutes ago piloting the ship? She could see Glaciera out of the corner of her eye way above them, screeching almost in pain as she dove toward their position, but she too was too far away to reach them in time.

She couldn't understand what was happening when the gargantuan wave hit their ship a moment later. All she felt was the rudder ripping out of her hand, an arm hitting a railing, the corner of a barrel hitting the side of her head and a furry of bubbles and intense currents dragging her underwater. She couldn't think straight; she could see up through the surface of the water the outline of the ship, still upright, with debris scattered around it, back lit by a half full moon. She could see the unconscious bodies of her friends and father drifting above her at the surface. She tried to swim but her limbs only responded with excruciating pain, she must have broken her arm. See watched the last gasp of air she had in her lungs escape and rise past her view toward the surface. Kytah's vision began to narrow as she felt another existence press over hers. Is this death?

*****

Sokka assumed the storm was going to be bad but this was manageable, their visibility was still good and he know these waters better then the back of his boomerang. Suki and Toph didn't have much knowledge of sailing, but Sokka more than made a five man crew by himself, especially on his father's boat. He let Suki take over on the rudder while adjusted the rigging to get the best speed of the wind available. With hand signals that looked like he was waving slowly he showed Suki how manipulate the rudder to ride the mild waves. Toph however was trying to keep all her dirt from flying away; he had stopped listening to her ranting at the storm to tune in to the spirits guiding him through the weather. The quicker we get to port the better he figured.

Just as he was about to return to relieve Suki on the rudder a bright bluish piercing light illuminated everything, brighter then the sun. It was hard for Sokka to look at but he squinted and covered the brighter part with his hand where the vertical beam of light ascended into the clouds not too far from their position. He had seen this light before, only much closer before, and when he was much younger.

Suki was stunned by the view, even Toph had stopped scrambling around and Sokka guessed she could feel it. He moved over to Suki's side and put his hand over hers and adjusted their heading towards the light.

"What are you doing Sokka?" Suki asked him surprised by his actions.

"I've seen this light before, either something is wrong…." His voice trailed off, he couldn't imagine what else could be causing it.

*****

Katara recognized the light instantly, but that doesn't make any sense. She turned to look at Aang, who was sitting in Appa's saddle. How could anything else make that light? The Avatar was right here in front of her, as far as she know only an Avatar could make such a spectacle while going into the Avatar State.

"Ahh," Aang slumped over from his composed sitting posture, one hand grabbing at his chest in pain.

"Aang!" Katara jumped over to him, ignoring the light, and captured some of the rain water in her hand and placed it on his back near his scar, she often used this to check if he was ok. Aang was extremely fatigued, that's odd they hadn't done anything exhausting in days.

Aang winced in pain, it wasn't something physical at all and it felt as if his avatar spirit had been yanked away from him. That all of his past lives, his reincarnations of The Avatars were confused and afraid. Something was happening that none of them or him understood.

*******

Aang felt incredibly powerful, almost omnipotent and yet so vulnerable. The turquoise crystal around him resonated with his Avatar's energy and shattered. He felt weightless and began to drift upwards. He could see and feel everything in the room with him, Katara was prepared to defend herself against dozens of Dai Le soldiers. Zuko was in extraordinary turmoil and felt torn between worlds in side himself.

But before he could unleash his awesome power to bring justice to those that have upset the balance of this world, Aang felt the core of his corporeal form grow cold. He had been one step too late, a fraction of a moment slower than his opponent. Azula had killed him. Lightning had ripped through Aang's body and left his connection to The Avatar spirit, which was once a solid and vibrant bond, a dangling thread.

He could feel Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, and all his past lives slipping away from him, to be lost to oblivion. If on the slim chance that he hasn't made the eternally fatal mistake of killing the Avatar, and thus leaving no hope of world peace, he knew the spirit would be reborn in a Water Bender. Aang's spirit poured its remaining strength into finding a new bond to be made before it passed on completely. There must be a newborn somewhere in the water tribe. He scoured frantically, searching in futility to find anyone he could hand the connection to.

Finally he found someone, the only one near birth. The mother was not ready to deliver the child yet, but the avatar could not be lost forever. He knew in giving the infant the avatar spirit he would be forcing an early birth, and likely killing the mother. But the girl would grow to be a great and loving Avatar, he could feel it.

Just as his spirit began to slip out of its connection to the universe, something yanked on him. Something was forcing him back into his corporeal body, like a bungee cord at the end of its length.

Aang opened his eyes and stared into Kataras. What just happened was rapidly slipping from his mind, what's going to happen now? The world can't have two Avatars. His body was still disconnected from him somehow; he couldn't get his mouth to speak the words he needed someone, anyone to remember before he forgets. But all he can do is be embraced by Katara's hug and feel her tears stream down her cheek onto his.

******

Kytah went from panic to collected calm, her situation was dire but she was relaxed now. She could see the environment around her as if it were illuminated by an omnidirectional inner light. Yet she did not have control of her movements; she was still several feet below the surface of the water, still looking up at her father and friends. She even now watched as Glaciera dove into the water and quickly made her way over to her, but she somehow felt impartial from her feelings for everyone, as if she was a stranger that didn't care.

The water around her began to rush in a funnel which drew her up and lifted her past the water's surface to gently set her on the deck of the boat. It was as if they were in the eye of the storm, it raged all around her, but in her immediate vicinity it was calm and still. She looked up and saw a great light peering down from the heavens, to what appeared to be her exactly. Her left hand rose, even with a broken arm, and beckoned the water around her to do her bidding. It picked up her companions and set them on the floor around her just as gently as it did her.

The light faded off as her dragon bolted out from the depths and returned to her side. Kytah felt heavy but numb. Whatever possessed her was gone now and she began to fall forward, unable to catch her weight. Glaciera caught her in one of her claws before she collided with the wooden decking, set her down softly and stretched a wing over her to shield the persisting rain.

*****

Sokka's ship was pulling a good clip, cruising with the wind on their backs. He noticed The Avatars sky bison traveling in roughly the same direction ahead of them not to high off the surface of the water. Sokka half smiled when he realized he was gaining on them.

When they came along side Appa he clearly recognized him and changed his direction to intercept a landing on his ship. Sokka held his course steady as the mammoth beast set down with a loud moan that made the floorboards rumble. Katara slid down Appa's tail with Aang who could barely stand. Sokka didn't know what was going on, but assumed Aang's condition had something to do with the light they saw.

"Suki," Sokka called out over the roaring wind, "go ask Katara what's going on would you? I don't think Aang made that light." Suki simply nodded and ran over to help Katara support Aang as they made their way below deck.

Sokka began to see pieces of debris from ship, pieces of torn sail and cargo. Nothing to big though, wherever the ship was, it was intact. He skillfully maneuvered his ship around a rogue ice berg and finally spotted the ship. It was taking quite a beating being relentlessly smashed against the sheer face of a wall of ice, but it was in one piece. He swung the rudder around to intercept the battered ship.

As they neared it Sokka could clearly see four people and an adolescent dragon, who was attempting to shield the rain with a wing, huddled together on the boat. Suki came back up from below deck with a concerned expression.

"Suki, grab a tow rope from the forward storage," Sokka ordered before she had a chance to explain The Avatar's situation. "We're going to tow them away from the cliff."

Just as they neared in position he brought the ship about, roughly 90 degrees to port, as if deflecting off the icy wall, and began to pass the Northern Water Tribe craft. Suki returned with a sturdy tow line and Sokka pointed to where to anchor one end of it to the aft section of his ship. Sokka locked the rudder's position and just as they were passing the forward bow of their sister ship he tossed the looped end at the headpiece, catching it on the first throw.

The tow line whined loudly as it was drawn over the railing from a spool on the floor while their ships grew further apart. Finally the last of it went overboard and snapped taut; Sokka's ship bucked back viciously with the added load. Groans of stress were heard throughout the ship, but she was a strong ship and bared the weight easily. In fact Sokka could feel that the entire burden from the mound of dirt Toph brought along helped them in this case, by adding more momentum to their ship.

Sokka glanced back with victory on his face; the other ship was being rapidly pulled out of danger. He returned his hand to the rudder with a gentle grip, removed the locking pin, and set a course back to the city.

"Aang apparently collapsed from fatigue while they were flying over here from the city," Suki continued as if nothing were wrong while looking back at their new water going neighbors. "Katara and Toph are taking care of him. She says Aang felt that someone close to them was in trouble so they flew over here to help. They believe it was Kytah who was in distress."

Sokka had met Kytah a few times; she certainly had a unique companion that he now recognized as the dragon on the other boat. "I can't wait to get on that boat and talk to the crew; they must have been out of their mind to be sailing out here."


	5. Search for Answers

Chapter 5 – Search for Answers

"I'll be fine Katara. Go find out what's going on with the other ship, it feels like we've taken them in tow," Aang reassured Katara. Aang now comfortable rested in one of the cots below. Toph and Katara at his side with rushed re-acquaintances.

"Fine, but Toph… don't leave his side; scream like I know you can if anything is wrong."

"You got it," Toph replied with a smile, half turning to almost face her.

Katara reluctantly left to return to Appa, Sokka and Suki above. She stepped back into the torrential rain while she held a hand over her head to deflect the precipitation.

"Sokka I'm going to take Appa over to the other boat to make sure everyone is ok," she said to her brother, who only nodded in reply while adjusting the sails.

Katara climbed on top of Appa and grabbed the reins, "Yip Yip."

Appa landed in the water next to the other boat, the creature never ceased to amaze her with how thoughtful he always was. It hadn't occurred to Katara that maybe landing a 12 ton bison on a damage ship could be a bad idea. Katara patted him on the head and jumped over to the other deck. Glaciera turned her wedge shaped head towards her with its webbed spines flat along her neck appearing to be ashamed. Glaciera lifted her wing and revealed the four passengers, Kytah unconscious. The others evidently had scrapes and bruises but were ok at first glance.

"Katara, please, help my daughter. She hasn't woken up yet, I think she may have a concussion." Arnak was holding Kytah in his lap; they were drenched from what looked like they had gone overboard. Katara pulled the cork off her water flask while striding over to them and coaxed the water out into a perfect sphere. Kneeling down at Arnak's side, with the water forming a glove around her left hand, she gripped her broken arm and mended it in seconds. Katara then placed her other hand on her upper back, just below her neck. She sensed Kytah felt weary, the same way Aang did moments ago.

Katara moved her left hand from Kytah's left forearm to her temple where a bruise was beginning to form. She did indeed have a concussion. Closing her eyes, Katara took a deep breath and focused on her patient. She let the world around her fall away in her mind and pictured only Kytah and herself.

"Ugh," Kytah moaned, followed by a series of coughs as she started gasping for deep breaths of air again.

"She should be fine for now till we get back to city, but she should move around as little as the storm permits. This ship still looks sturdy enough to keep her here until we get there," Katara looked around examining its integrity.

Arnak looked up at her with tears welling in his eyes, "I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't arrived."

******

"I don't remember much," Kytah was in the healing hut, resting and attempting to explain what had just transpired the day before. The storm had subsided and it was a bright a beautiful day outside. Katara and Aang were sitting on pillows to her right and Toph on her left. Her father was in the next room over sleeping on a couch. She could see Glaciera's head poking through the curtain leading into the bigger room adjacent to theirs; she had grown too big to make it through the doorway completely.

"I had just made it past the last ice berg," she closed her eyes trying to recount the events. "The chunk of ice fell off the cliff and landed in the water just off the side of the ship." She paused for a moment, turning her head away from Katara. She felt ashamed for not having been able to prevent it. "When the wave hit I was knocked overboard, I think the others were too."

"But I found you all aboard the ship when we arrived." Katara felt growing concern for her student; Kytah was still too young to experience traumatic events like this.

"That's the confusing part. Last I saw was looking up at the ship from underwater. Glaciera was swimming down toward me, and I started to black out. Next I knew I was back on the ship waking up in Papa's arms."

"If only Glaciera could tell us what she saw," Aang said as they all turned to look at the dragon, who glanced back at all of them and back to Kytah.

Glaciera had only spoken a few short phrases to Kytah over the years, and never verbally, as far as she could tell no one else could hear their conversations. And yet she didn't know how to respond in the same manner, but Glaciera did understand their spoken language. It must have looked to other people like she was having a one sided discussion with thin air.

_You are The Avatar._

Aang had never heard the dragon speak to him before, but he looked at Glaciera with a 'Ya, I know that' expression. But Glaciera was not looking at him when she spoke; she was looking at Kytah who looked very confused. Kytah had reacted at the same instant he heard the dragons words, had she heard the same thing?

******

They had decided to go find Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple. They knew enough now that there was some connection between Aang and Kytah through the Avatar's Spirit. If anyone could answer their questions it was him. Aang had tried to reach Roku through meditation several times but to no avail. It felt as though he were lost and could not find Roku, he still felt their presence, and even knew that he could go into the Avatar State if needed, but something made him feel weaker. When he talked to Kytah about how he felt she seemed to understand, completing his sentences when he lacked the words to express himself.

Kytah, however, was not in a condition to travel yet. Her recovery was coming along quickly and they'd be able to leave by the end of the week but Katara was adamant about keeping her near the healing hut for the time being.

Sokka came crashing through the front door without knocking, and dropped onto the couch, burying his head in the pillows. Aang was at Katara's house to find a familiar place to think. He had heard Sokka was helping Arnak repair his ship.

"Hey Sokka, If you lost your spirit, like you threw it somewhere, and no one else can help you find it, what would you do?" Aang asked.

Sokka lifted and turned his head from under a pillow with a 'you're asking _me_ this?' expression. "Boomerang always comes back," he said before passing out.

As odd as it sounded to Aang, it actually made sense. Having more confidence this condition wasn't permanent, he stood up to leave. He patted Sokka on the shoulder with a "thanks" to which he only received the grunt of an exhausted man.

Their house was only a few paces from the healing lodge, he had another question he wanted answered. Just as he made it to the doorway to the lodge, Katara was arriving with Toph on Appa; he had asked them to get some of the dirt they had brought with them from Kyoshi. Aang reached out with an open palm towards Appa, as if to say 'stop' with a hand sign. Without breaking his stride he lifted the pile and crushed it by closing his fist, the pile that was a few feet high was now compressed down to roughly the size of an Airball.

If Kytah had a trace of Avatar in her she might be able to bend earth. Aang however was not the best teacher so he left it in Toph's capable hands to bring out any Earth Bending she may possess. Hopefully being a Water Bender she'd be able to learn it easier than he had.

"I'm still not certain this is a good idea, I'm stopping this at the first sign of trouble," Katara's Concern was shared by all. Before they made it into the hut Kytah calmly walked outside the entryway and stood ready for what they wanted to do. For being a 14 year old girl she was remarkably grown up. Aang dropped the hard rock in front of Kytah and watched Toph approach her.

Toph had mentioned that she had finally figured out how to see with ice they same way should could on land. Aang didn't have the same sense she did, he could only feel through earth still, but she had explained that vibrations simply travel faster and at a higher pitch through ice then earth; that the key was getting your senses accurate and fast enough to make sense of it. Of course, Toph was out of her mind to walk around in snow and ice barefoot.

"Right. Kytah, I imagine you've made a snowball before?" Toph began.

"Oh yah," Kytah smiled, Aang could tell she had a good story about one but she knew to hold her tong during training.

"Same concept really. This should be much easier for you than Twinkle Toes at first. But do it without touching the rock or doing any Water Bending"

Kytah stared at it for a moment, considering how she could do that. She remembered the first lesson Katara gave her with Water Bending, pushing and pulling the water. That seemed similar enough. She walked over to it and placed her hands over it while in a water bending stance, she knew it was most likely wrong but it was all she knew. She could feel the weight of the rock resisting her; she shifted her footing to a wider stance more parallel with the direction of motion attempting to get a better grip. She tried again and still the rock failed to budge, earth was certainly a more stubborn substance then waters forgiving nature. She took a few steps back to get better leverage, and tried more pushing than rolling the stone and it began to creep forward, rolling over the perfect layer of snow only a few inches deep. She stepped toward it as much as it moved away, and lowered her center of gravity. This time she threw all her effort into it, she was still tired but she was excited to be able to feel the stone presence. The small boulder went balling off rapidly toward Aang who dodged it with agility but it crashed into Katara's house putting a sizeable hole in the wall.

"Sorry!" Kytah exclaimed cupping her hands to her mouth in surprise. A very tired looking Sokka looked up from the low, damaged wall.

"Cant a man get some sleep around here!?"

Note: Please review, I need your feedback!


	6. Understanding

Chapter 6 - Understanding

The cool crisp air breezed through her hair, the smell of the clouds was sweet with the scent of coming rain. She held her chin up with eyes closed, trying not to think about how her life was changing. For the time being they had decided to keep things quiet about her emerging abilities, no one she knew of was able to bend multiple elements aside from The Avatar.

Appa moaned and she opened her eyes; they were nearing the Eastern Air Temple. She could see the first structure as the fast moving clouds cleared when they got closer. The temple's green overgrowth filling in any unbuilt surface. Kytah had seen the Western and Southern Air Temples before, but there was a stronger spiritual aura about this one, something alive still breathed here.

Aang had explained to her that he had been here years ago, learning to master the Avatar State but had failed to go all the way through with unlocking his chakras with the Guru. If she too shared elements of The Avatar would she have to let go of the people she loves? Did she even care to have the ability to go into the Avatar State if she could? She was getting way ahead of herself. She shook her head to let go of the thought and took a deep breath, she didn't want to concern herself with such things yet.

Appa neared the landing where they spotted Pithak meditating; hopefully he could lay her mind to rest. Katara, Aang and Kytah disembarked from the bison in front of the Guru when they landed.

"Ah, Aang," the old man responded to their arrival without opening his eyes. Birds were perched on his shoulders, arms and bald head; a shaft of light poked through an opening in the trees making his presence look truly divine. Aang assumed the same meditation posture in front of the old man, Katara and Kytah followed suit and settled next to him. "I have been expecting you again."

Pithak raised his hand in front of him, as if measuring the energy from them. "Oh deer, you are very troubled." He leaned forward and with his index and middle finger together touched Aang on the forehead, at the exact tip of his arrow. "Then it is true, I have felt a disturbance in the cosmic energy. It has been split from you some time ago, but was not apparent until recently." He shifted his fingers over to Kytah's forehead. "And you are the recipient." The Guru let out a gentle sigh and opened his eyes finally.

"Master Pithak," Aang started slowly, instilling calm in everyone. "I have not been able to contact Roku or any of my past Avatars. It feels as if I'm lost." Katara placed a hand on Aang's back to reassure him. She looked deeply concerned for the Air Bender. "Can you help us?"

Pithak closed his eyes again, took a deep breath, and placed both his open palms on Aang and Kytah's foreheads before exhaling. They too closed their eyes as the world around them dropped away. The next moment Kytah was sitting on the ground in the space place next to Aang, however everything was surreal and bright, Katara and the old man were both missing. A tall Fire Bender stood before them, who had a pressing, authoritive aura about him. Yet he was not intimidating, while he did appear powerful she felt as if they were friends and she could trust him.

"Aang, I have been looking for you, but you have become increasingly difficult to make contact with," the figure began with a god-like voice. "I see you've found the individual already. You've cause a great deal of confusion and discord among the Avatar Spirits."

"Kytah, this is Roku. He is my, or our, predecessor in the Avatar Cycle," Aang attempted to explain. "This is the spirit world." Aang's transparent form stood up and offered a hand down to her to stand as well, which she reluctantly accepted. She wasn't too sure of the idea of moving around while disembodied.

"We believe we understand what has happened and have come to an agreement," Roku continued. Kytah and Aang sent shocked glances at each other. "To the best of our knowledge, we have concluded that a second Avatar was prematurely born fourteen years ago, when you nearly died. The spirit water that was used to revive you, however, broke the continuity of the Cycle. It's likely you forgot the spiritual events that made this occur moments after they transpired. We, the Avatars past existences, have agreed that it should leave the chain intact for the future, however only one of you will be able to access the Avatar State at a time. If you both attempt it at the same time we cannot be certain of the outcome," Roku finished with a stern look at both of them.

"You two will always be connected in this spirit world from here on, and should you ever need to consult each other, the others or myself, you now know how to get here. Disorder and unbalance are rising throughout the world again, young Avatar, you have much ahead of you still. Aang, it is now your responsibility to teach Kytah in the ways of The Avatar. We believe in you."

Before Kytah could take it all in or respond to the Fire Bender she felt herself falling back into the tangible world. Almost as if falling off a cliff in a dream and waking just as she hit the bottom she opened her eyes, gasped, and fell backwards from her sitting posture.

"I did almost the same thing when I first went there," Aang smiled at her before putting his chin up and inhaling through his nose to smell the flora's pungent aroma.

"Is everything ok?" Katara was still anxious about their condition and stared at her partners face like he didn't feel as worried as she did.

"Everything is fine Katara," he reached out and pulled her toward him to embrace her. Kytah could somehow feel his relief in returning to the spirit world once again and wished she had someone to hug as well.

While still on her back, with her arms unfolded to either side, Glaciera landed just behind her and lowered her head close to Kytahs with an attention deprived whale-like call. Kytah reached up and wrapped her arms around Glaciera's neck and held her companion close with a wide grin. She must have felt her need for friendship and came to her. She loved her best friend.

*****

Aang had long ago admitted to Katara that while he was considered a fully realized Avatar and thus a Master Water Bender as well, Katara was on a completely different level of mastery then his when he was not empowered by the Avatar State. That was also why Aang asked Katara to train Kytah not only as a Water Bender, but to give her true mastery in all aspects of healing as well. Aang patiently observed her training from the sidelines, adding in suggestions here and there, but not imposing in their lessons. Aang certainly felt a strong nostalgia for the situation as his training years ago were still vivid memories for him. The challenges his friends had put him through were rigorous, but he loved every moment of it.

Katara was no less demanding now then she was back then. "Your breathing has changed to much, focus on your breath. Now try again." Katara loved watching her students grow from not only from their success, but also from their failures. Kytah however rarely failed to pick up on new concepts instantly. She watched Kytah straighten her posture, gasping for air from the exhausting exercise, and resumed the stance they were working on. Her student took one last gulp of air and calmed herself inwardly. Katara smiled briefly; she was becoming a remarkable healer in such a short period of time.

Healing was a hard thing to practice, without having live injured subjects to use, and they could not justify catching wild animals and injure them just to treat them for our learning purposes before sending them on their way or turning them over to the kitchen. They had to resort to what Katara liked to call active mediation; focusing their entire energy source, every fiber in their being, and controlling it at a single point. Forcing the participant to harness greater energy and channel it with more precision. It felt like holding an explosive in your hands and trying to keep it from going off. And often it did, Katara even on occasion had lost control of her own training method, whenever she was angry or upset about something; the result can be a catastrophic explosion of uncommanded Bending. Although the aftermath can make a rather breathtaking display of chaos at its best.

"Ahh!" Kytah was exerting the last threads of energy she had left, trying to make the most of her last shot. The water glob she had under her hands was compressed to almost 1/20th its original size in a perfect marble sized sphere; time almost stood still as she stared into its beauty. She was shaking so violently, from nearing her limit, that she could not get a clear view of it between her hands. She had been taught that water was not a compressible substance, but her master had shown her otherwise. She had to relax the pressure on it gently or it would explode. She didn't have it in her, or rather she didn't want to call on that massive reserve of energy buried in her spirit, bursting at the seams to be released should the need arise. Training as an Avatar, not only did she have to learn where her limits were, but she also had to restrain herself enough to not push past it. With any other person, the Bender would simply run out of energy or faint. With herself however, nowhere near mastery of her Avatar State, she would become a rage driven lunatic; out of control with nothing to do but watch the terrifying power unfold.

She couldn't let herself get pushed past her capacity; so she let go. Almost like being struck by a tsunami wave, she imagined, the water exploded in her face sending her flying several feet backwards. She landed in a soft snow bank they had bended around the area just for this purpose. Kytah was face up with her arms and legs outstretched as if ready to make a snow angel, superimposed into the snow. She was completely exhausted, she couldn't snivel her nose if she wanted to.

"That was excellent Kytah, you're getting very good." Katara was panting as well when she came up and stopped in front of her, dropping her head with her hands on her knees to rest. "I'm impressed that you didn't turn glow stick either. With Aang I'm able to bring him out of it because we… love each other very much. Not sure it would work the same with you," Katara smiled at the thought and dropped into a reclined sitting position with her hands on the ground behind her.

Kytah finally had the energy to lift her head to look at her teacher; at least she had left an interesting sculpture in the area which looked almost like a massive cluster of blunt spikes.

"That's enough for today," Katara said after a few moments of silence aside from their heavy breathing. Katara stood and reached out a hand toward her, offering to help her to her feet.

"I think you're going to have to Bend me back home, I don't feel like moving for a week."


	7. Strength

Chapter 7 – Strength

Note – Please review, the quality of this story depends on you reader's reactions! Thanks for reading. Btw I have a great deal more story coming and I'll try to post at least a chapter a day, so keep checking back if you like it.

Kytah had adopted much of Katara's appearance; she had grown out two strands of her bangs and attached them to the back of her head to make the traditional hair loops. The rest of her hair past that made a long pony tail to her lower back, which required constant brushing to maintain. Toph stood behind her running a seal-bone toothed comb through her hair.

They had become friends over the past weeks that Toph was staying at their city, when they were gone to seek the Guru she had decided to stay behind to catch up with Sokka and Suki who were inseparable, which made it sometimes hard to pass the time when they 'wanted to be alone'.

When she had left the Civil Engineering Corps behind at Ba Sing Se she had told them she was only leaving only for a vacation, but now she felt she wanted to stay with her friends more. She still hated the rules, regulations and confinement of being nailed down to anything. Especially being carted around by entourages and escorts everywhere she went as she was considered one of the heroes to the city; being from the Be Fong family didn't help much either. Toph, however, was the only metal bender in the world, and she was needed.

"Toph, how come you don't have a husband like Katara or Suki?" Toph stopped brushing her hair mid stroke, startled by the question. "You're about as old as them aren't you?"

"I've tried a few times, to have a relationship, but I'm always to abrasive and stubborn to find anyone I can settle down with. Besides I like being able to go where I want when I want."

"Sounds lonely," Kytah almost whispered, lowering her chin.

"How about you, any young warrior boys you got your eye on yet?" Toph placed her hands on Kytah's shoulders, who half turned to look at her, her face was riddled with blush at the thought.

"Hey, when are you going to teach me more Earth Bending," Kytah changed the subject, spinning around to face her. "I've been itching to work on it more since I destroyed Katara's home."

"Well, you could come work for the CEC; we have some major projects coming up soon. You'd be able to learn a lot. If you got 'stuff' you could even learn to Metal Bend like me," Toph suggested with a grin.

"CEC?"

"I started an organization after the war ended twelve years ago that was tasked with repairing the civil damage to Ba Sing Se and other places around the world; I called it the Civil Engineering Corps. Most of that is long past and now we work on expanding infrastructure and handling major natural disasters like earthquakes. The Fire Nation donated one of their decommissioned air ships to us about ten years ago. It's a pretty sweet way to get around if you don't see with your feet. It's also the only one in use as the Joint Nations Operations board banned their construction as they were used for dropping bombs during the war," Toph knew it was a little long winded, but she was proud of her accomplishments.

"That's a bit over my head; I just want to learn to Earth Bend."

"Don't worry," Toph patter Kytah on the back. "If you come with me you'll have an excellent opportunity to learn Earth Bending."

"Awesome," Kytah stood up, looking ready to leave right now. "Let's go!"

"Whoa, relax. You need to finish your training with Katara first."

"Oh don't worry, were coming with you," Katara stated as she came around the corner in Aang's arms with her arm around his shoulders. "You've nearly mastered Water Bending and it's about time you continued your training to the other elements." Aang nodded in agreement while setting Katara down.

******

They stood at the southern rim to the Great Divide. Wind swept through its crevasses and picked up huge gusts of dusty air. The canyon floor was completely barren of life apart from the Crawlers, they would make construction challenging. Toph had heard that spirits had torn this chasm in the Earth to spite farmers for insufficient offerings to them; this, however, was ludicrous. To her senses she could clearly see its ancient history of being carved out from rivers and tectonic movement, and they were about to scar it with a structure that would allow more travelers and merchants to make it in and out of Ba Sing Se.

The advisor, assigned by the Earth King, handed her a scroll. "These are the plans for the bridge we suggest." Toph took the scroll from him and unrolled it, pretending to read its contents.

"Looks good," she said as she returned it to him. She didn't want to go into another discussion of how she couldn't read someone else's plans and sitting through them explaining the entire thing orally and the reasons why they designed it the way they did. She had a student to teach, not bore.

She twisted her foot into the ground to get a clearer image of the layout. She inhaled a breath of dusty air through her nose, getting a sense of the moisture content in the air, and thus the moisture in the top soil. She lifted a hand and gently applied minute bending forces to the ground around her, getting a feel for the strength of it and what forces they could withstand over time; It was a solid material, this structure would last ages.

"Watch closely Kytah," her student stood behind her, carefully observing with all her senses.

Kytah mentally recorded her teacher's movements, her muscles tinged with desire to mimic the actions. She wanted more than anything in that moment to feel the churning sensation of molding the earth to her will. It was almost hard to breath with the weight of anticipation pressing down on her.

_Show me, _she begged in her mind.

She watched Toph assume a wide squatting stance, stomping her right foot into the ground. Her left hand formed a fist; her right formed an 'L' shape with the index finger and thumb. Both of which she held directly in front of her, her left fist roughly six inches further out then the right hand. The ground around her began to crack, appearing to take on extraordinary weight as Toph anchored herself to the landscape. The muscles down her arms, legs, back and neck flexed to their maximum and strong veins began to pulse down her bare arms. Her hands slowly exchanged position and she pulled her fist backwards and pushed her other hand outward. She was a completely different person in this state, nothing like the bossy yet pretty and tall individual of five minutes ago.

Enormous equidistant Columns of compressed granite rocketed up from under the canyon floor from here to the other side of the canyon, level with the plane they were on. Smaller pillars on the right and left side of each column rose again to roughly fifty feet above their elevation Kytah guessed. Toph relaxed and lowered her head taking a few deep breaths.

"Alright, foundation is up, now we add the cabling, then the road surface, then attach the tethers" Toph continued after she regained her composure a few moments later. Huge spools of miles worth of thick cable had been delivered from the industries in the Fire Nation for the project and were lined up on wheeled platforms behind them.

Now Toph stood with her left shoulder facing the Great Divide and transitioned from a regular standing posture to a similar pose to before; this time however, with her left hand, open palmed toward the top of the left pillar on the first column, her right hand shot toward the beginning of the line as if grabbing the ending. The cable responded by appearing ready to be unspooled. The motion she did next Kytah could only describe as yanking a chain toward you that lay out straight on the ground. She could see why only a Metal Bender could do this; it would take years of effort from hundreds of workers to achieve what she had in less than ten minutes, which wasn't an option with the crawlers inhabiting the area.

The cable flew through the air and connected perfectly with the tower, but before the other end could fall into the canyon Toph raised an angled block next to her position and anchored it there where it fell taut moments later. Dust fell off the joined pillar as it absorbed its new obligation to hold the bridge, but it held sturdy even without the weight of the bridge on the other side. This certainly would be a feat of engineering that would last the test of time. The process was repeated for the right side of the overpass.

Lastly Toph Extended a platform out to from the rim's edge to the first support, which joined completely flush.

"Righto people, the bridge is very weak at the moment, only ten people on it at any time until the suspenders are attached completely. Send for me when we're ready to continue on to the next gap." Kytah could hardly believe anyone with such power existed. Toph was simply the best Earth Bender alive, she was certain of it, and yet she was still so young.

"What say we go get a drink?" Toph put an arm around Kytah's shoulder, who was still too stunned by the demonstration to move. "There's a village near buy that's sprung up from the work that's come to the area for this project, it happens a lot on the big ones actually. People betting on a lot of travelers needing to stop here before crossing and such."

"Papa said I can't drink any alcohols while I'm away."

"I wasn't suggesting you should, Katara and Aang will meet us at a tea shop, I think there's already a Jasmine Dragon out here. Things are popping up everywhere, I heard there were two across the street from each other in Ba Sing Se's shopping district. I need a place to crash for a few hours before I can throw any more rocks. Then we'll start your second lesson."


	8. Vigilance

Chapter 8 - Vigilance

Progress was steady on the bridge. They had been there for about a week, assembling one section per day. Toph had said she could probably go faster, but the work on each section had to be completed before they could bear the weight of the massive spools for the next length of main cable. Only three sections remained before they would be given a new project, the world was in no short demand for new roads and buildings to be built in challenging places. Many people even requested the CEC build them a unique home in the side of cliffs or over waterfalls or any other random place a house shouldn't be, and they offered obscene quantities of money, but Toph had turned every one of them down.

"Hey if it doesn't help people I don't care to build it," Toph was talking to her as they walked toward their next assignment for the day. The air was still rigid from the previous night and the wind would not pick up for another hour or so. The sun was just beginning to reveal itself over the horizon, casting breathtaking shadows across the canyon from the bridge.

Aang and Katara would have joined them in the morning but they were 'sleeping in' usually at this time of day. Kytah had been around them long enough that she had become comfortable with their romantic lives being so public, especially when they traveled together. When they would set up camp they would sleep in a single large sleeping bag and almost always wake up looking more exhausted then when they had go to sleep. Every morning after they would apologize to her if they had kept her awake but she never seemed to have trouble sleeping around commotion.

"I'm still a little shabby with deflecting a moving rock; think we could work on that more today?"

"Course," Toph said with a smile, she never had a student before that was so engaged in their training. It was refreshing and made her see her own skills with new appreciation.

Toph stopped dead in her tracks and Kytah did the same a few steps later when she realized something was wrong by the look on her master's face. Toph broke out into a sprint toward the other end of the bridge.

"Hurry Kytah, section six is about to collapse."

"Shouldn't we be running away from it then?" Kytah dashed to keep up as best she could.

"Not if we can prevent it, there are dozens of people on that span."

Too late, with each step that landed she could feel the situation getting worse, whoever had anchored the vertical suspender lines from the bridge surface to the main cables had screwed up. If people got hurt it would be her fault, she held herself responsible for every person that worked for the CEC. She could tell by their heart rates that everyone on the bridge didn't have a clue what was about to happen in moments. The length of bridge behind the most forward built section was where they kept all their equipment for the day, including the extremely heavy six remaining spools of main cable.

Now everyone was starting to realize the danger they were in as the suspender lines began to snap at their connecting bolt at the bridge surface, letting out a series of loud whip-like sound similar to banging metal pans together. The massive rectangular block of compressed earth began to fall, breaking at the far end of its section and pivoting at the closer end as the cables gave out in sequence in their direction. Toph reach the last column before the break and landed in a lifting stance as if she were trying to hold an invisible roof up. She couldn't reverse the acceleration of the bridge dropping, but she did manage to mitigate most of its descent rate. It was slowly turning into a ramp to the canyon floor.

Kytah caught up to her a moment later, but Toph knew they were just beginning their training; there wasn't much she figured she could do yet. But Kytah didn't stop next to her, she bolted past Toph and continued down the ramp as heavy machinery and personnel began to lose grip and slide down. Was she crazy? What was she trying to do?

Kytah dodged past tools and equipment as she proceeded as fast as she could. She need to get at least half way down before the ramp hits the bottom of the canyon if she were to be in time to save anyone in the impending collision. Toph was doing an incredible job of arresting the descent rate of the bridge, Kytah figured it would not crash with such force that the stone would be pulverized on impact but gently set down making a convenient slope for all the hardware to come sliding down into a pile of people. This was going to be messy.

The ramp touched down to the canyon floor with mountains of steel hardware plummeting to get even with gravity. As Kytah was nearing the bottom she reached out with her right hand and began to accumulate as much moisture as this unforgiving landscape had to offer, she may not be able to help with her Earth Bending yet, but she still was a Master Water Bender. She finally made it to the bottom of the ramp ahead of most of the impending disaster.

She had acquired a ball of water roughly her height in diameter, it wasn't much but it would have to do. Quickly forming the octopus posture, with its tentacles, Kytah figured it was her best bet to deflect most of the debris. As she looked up at her oncoming challenge, seeing the different weights and speeds of the rubbish to prepare for it, she could see Toph was hurtling toward her location as well.

She only had to handle the leading edge before Toph was near enough to barricade them from the rest of it. Kytah turned around; many people were injured and needed immediate help. To make matters worse the commotion brought out several dozen Canyon Crawlers who were rapidly converging on their position.

Toph landed next to her and looked helplessly at all the wounded workers, "You wouldn't happen to be able to heal them here would you?"

"I need a large building with no entrances for those things to get in," Kytah stated as she began to gently gather the people together in a grid on the canyon floor. With a stomp of a foot and a jerk of the hand Toph had raised the necessary walls and slammed a lid on top. They were enclosed in a very dark perfectly square room. "Now I need everyone on a table roughly two feet high, carefully. Then I'll need some light."

Kytah had practiced a few times on members of the water tribe that came home with fishing injuries or illnesses that cropped up occasionally; She knew how to mend broken bones and calm people down enough until experienced help could arrive. _God I hope Katara is on her way_ she thought to herself as she began to divide the water to each hurt person in the room. She stood in the middle of the space, sat down on the floor, closed her eyes, and tuned out all but the information she was getting back from her patients.

_First order of triage, _Katara's lesson replayed in her head, _determine who is in need of immediate help and who can wait, then treat it order of severity. At times some may be beyond being healable, it is important for you to be able to make these judgments with confidence and move on quickly because other people's lives still depend on you in the crisis._

Kytah refused to accept that anyone alive at this moment was beyond her ability to assist, so she focused on the ones that would not survive the next hour and decided to heal them all simultaneously. She felt she understood their problems and got to work.

To Toph being in the dark didn't change much, she could feel the temperature difference between being in sunlight and in the shade, but that was about it. In fact she could feel where sunlight met shade on the surfaces of nature better then she could on her bare skin. She could also sense everyone's physical condition clearly, since they were all on solid stone blocks basically which transmitted information for her in abundance. She couldn't diagnose their medical condition but she could get a rough feel for how dire a situation was. And she felt terrible for letting such a thing happen to her crew, some were earth benders as well, but most were regular people looking for work or trying to leave their mark on the world. When she finds out who allowed this to happen…. _Calm down Toph _she told herself. Kytah, however, was doing an awesome job of treating so many individuals at the same time.

She felt Appa land outside their structure, followed by the sound of rushing water and strong gusts of wind, followed by the screeches of Canyon Crawlers being launched away from their location. A wedge shape crack like hole opened in one of the walls, just big enough for Appa to fit through which quickly closed after Aang, Katara and Appa entered the room. Katara immediately rushed to the closest victim, extracted water from her hip pouch and got to work as well.

"What happened?" Aang asked as he walked toward her, throwing small fires onto the wall to illuminate the pitch black environment.

"I think it might be sabotage, my team is never this careless. I think they have things under control here, we should go out and inspect the damage," Toph stated as she walked toward the nearest wall. She was eager to understand the situation herself.

Aang followed her outside where they took a look at all the now worthless hardware that had crashed into the barricade Toph had created several minutes ago. She could repair some of it, but it would take her weeks to repair the intricacies in the cable so it could support the immense weight of the bridge again. This project would have to be put on hold now; it was their first major accident since the inception of the CEC.

She walked over to where the first cable that have given out and felt her hand around its now sheered anchoring bolt. This installation was completely improper, the bolt had be torqued to three times its maximum tension and the material in the construction of the bolt was far more brittle then ones she had ordered from Fire Heavy Industries. Someone had improperly installed the wrong hardware; such coincidences just didn't happen in the CEC. She had laid out strict guidelines and standards for their work so such things didn't happen by accident. Which left only sabotage, and the identity of the individual was likely whoever was on her crew but not in the building below being treated and had connections to FHI to ruin the shipment. That was unless they were so dedicated to their goal that they were willing to be killed to conceal its source.

"Come on Aang, I have a theory." They returned to the room where several people were now sitting up evidently healed. Toph again sealed the room shut and began to study everyone's emotional responses. Once she had a clear sense of everyone, she called out simply, "Who did it?!"

Most of the reactions she got were expected, confusion, everyone still believed it was simply an accident. The one she was looking for was fear, fear of being caught. She knew most of the people that worked for her, but clearly they didn't know that she was a practiced and proven lie detector that had only one known person in the world that could best her senses. She found walked up to him, Paltor was his name.

"I can feel your fear," she said as she leaned down close to his face. He still had a broken leg that Kytah and Katara hadn't gotten to yet. "And I will grow that fear into terror if you don't talk right now."


	9. Uncovered

Chapter 9 - Uncovered

The traitor had been taken away by Ba Sing Se authorities. He didn't talk much in the time Toph had him, she wanted to press him more but also couldn't torture the man, not that she enjoyed hurting other people. In fact she had a strong passion for helping others in her own way. She was, however, furious that a terrorist had slipped into her crew and injured so many people she cared about.

They had to halt the Great Divide's Crossing construction as a lot of the materials had to be replaced. Before they closed down the construction site Toph had reinforced the pillars that didn't have tension on both ends and dropped the ramp the rest of the way to the canyon floor as gently as she could.

Luckily there was another task that needed the CEC's attention, and one Toph had a personal interest in. Aang, however, was not looking forward to confronting these memories. The Fire Nation, wanting to undo some of the damage they'd done during the war, wanted to rebuild their section on Fire Nation history in the Wan Shi Tong Library and make it accessible to the public. This also required providing some means of traveling to its location. They had been gathering a collection of literature over the past ten years and felt it was time to pursue its recovery. Only two problems stood in the way; unearthing the colossal building, and dealing with Wan Shi himself. The Spirit that protected the vast knowledge contained inside the library. So Aang, Katara, Kytah and herself were flying on Appa to their next destination. The remaining CEC that weren't still hospitalized would be joining them in a few days on the air ship out of Ba Sing Se.

Kytah was coming along nicely with her training; she had an excellent grasp of the basics and fundamentals of Earth Bending. It would be somewhat difficult to resume her training in nothing but sand, but it was a solid challenge. Only that Toph could hardly see in the sand. Everything came out distorted in such a way that she had trouble sensing the size and distance of everything; she was going to need Kytah and Aang's help to bend their way through this one.

They landed at the crater they left when they were here last and the Library had sunken into the depths of the desert.

"Katara, drop some water in the sand here, it'll help me see," Toph began when she set foot at the center of the crater, the deformation she was getting from the sand almost made her dizzy; she kept shaking her head, trying to rid herself of the nausea. Once the water soaked into the sand around her feet and turned it more into mud she began to get a clearer image. "Ah, it's still down there, somewhat damaged but intact; but its way down there, were going to have to excavate a great deal of sand to get to it. I haven't figured out how to lift it yet either."

Aang was eager to get into the repository. There could be information in there predating The Avatar that he badly wanted. He had spent a great deal of time over the years in libraries all over the world working on a theory that only Katara and he knew about. Information from nearly 60,000 years ago, however, was scarce. The people back then barely had a record keeping system, let alone much that could survive ages of time.

To Aang's deepest sorrow, he had lost his people over 100 years ago when he had accidentally abandoned the world. To his knowledge he was the only air bender alive, and the last surviving relic of his once great civilization. On top of that Aang feared that years from now, after he, Kytah, and whoever is to be the Earth Kingdom's Avatar have passed on, what would the Avatar's Cycle do? He had no answers, only guesses for a hundred questions. He felt it was his duty to revive the Air Nomads, and that only he could.

But there was cause for hope, when he had gained the understanding of Spirit, or more accurately Energy Bending to disable the Phoenix King fourteen years ago, he soon after realized he may have the potential to give others the ability to Air Bend once again.

"I don't want to deal with Wan Shi while digging it up, we should dig down there first and figure out the situation first," Aang stated.

"Sounds good," Toph shrugged, she wasn't expecting Aang to be this assertive. Now that she thought about it, this may even be impossible without The Avatar, luckily she had two with her. Before she could think further they were plunging straight down, as if the ground their small group stood on became the world's fastest elevator. Sand wrapped around their feet to _pull_ them with it as it was accelerating faster than gravity.

Moments later they had arrived at the main doorway to the library underground, which opened surprisingly easy on their first attempt. Aang again threw small fires to the torches along the wall and when the room finally lit up they could see the building was actually in rather good shape. Few books, however, still remained on the shelving; it would be a massive ordeal to reorganize the collection.

"It's actually in pretty bad shape, structurally speaking, we need to be careful," Toph pointed out, she could see the integrity of the building better than they could.

"I wonder if Professor Zei is still down here," Aang thought out loud with a morbid shiver. The pressed on to the center of the building hoping Won Shi would appear again. When they did encounter him, they would have to correct for their past mistakes, and convince the spirit to allow people to use the library once again. Or defend themselves if the spirit did not respond to reason, if the creature was even down here at all.

"YOU DARE RETURN AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO DESECRATE THIS PLACE," The spirit came around a corner and charged at them. Aang, un-phased by the surprise, simply placed a hand in front of him and used a strong gust of wind to halt his advance, intentionally restraining enough to not throw the being backward but more stall him in one place.

"Please hear us out, great spirit," Aang began. "We have not come here for personal gain and are deeply sorry for our actions fourteen years ago." He stopped restraining the immortal and dropped to his hands and knees in a bow of apology. He must have got through to him on some level as Won Shi was only standing and watching him.

After a moment he returned to the cross legged sitting posture he used for meditation. "I understand how you must feel with people abusing your knowledge over the ages. If you demand I leave, then I will. But I am begging for information you may have about my people and the ways of bending before the time of The Avatar." He must have intrigued Won Shi as he cocked his head almost 90 degrees to one side.

"I'd give him another chance to redeem himself Master Won," Professor Zei slowly came around a corner looking a great deal thinner than he had when they left him here. How he was still alive amazed Aang.

"Professor Zei!" Katara exclaimed and ran up to him to shake his hand once more. "How did you survive?"

"It's a long story, but you could say that Master Won Shi and I reached an understanding some years ago. Turns out they have a collection of seeds and plants they've been keeping alive down here for the past epoch in a vast garden. I've eaten the fruit from trees that don't even exist outside this library anymore."

"Zei will accompany you everywhere you go; he will uphold the principles of knowledge. One wrong move and I will guarantee no one can ever use this anthology again." Won Shi turned and left with the gait of a scarred man.

"He'll come around, give it time. So what is it you're after, something about Energy Bending?" Professor Zei said as he scratched his head.

"I'm sure you know better than I do now, that my people, the Air Nomads, were wiped out roughly 120 years ago," the Professor nodded in agreement to Aang's statement. "I believe I may have found a way to rebuild the Air Nomad people, as well as Air Benders. When I was about to face Ozai I was contacted by a giant Lion Turtle who briefly told me of the time before The Avatar. He taught me how to Spirit Bend the energy inside myself. What I need is information about Energy Bending and if I can pass on my Air Bending to others using it."

"That's around a period of time that nearly predates recorded history. Most of what we have on those times are images and texts in ancient languages that had very little developed grammar and syntax. Here, I'll show you where we keep those tomes," Zei turned to make his way back into the depths of the library, waving for them to follow.

*******

"Here," Aang pointed to an image on the book in his hands. "This looks promising; it looks like two Energy Benders, one bending the other Bender, and the second bending another person." They had been digging through volumes for hours. A lot had been lost when Won Shi buried the place and even less had been recorded on the time frame they wanted to begin with.

Kytah had been patiently watching and listening, this place was staggering to her. Any time they traveled she found wondrous locations all around the world. She had tried helping them search through the books but it was way over her head and she felt she was getting in the way so she simply observed The Avatar do his research.

"Can you read what it says here in the description?" Aang asked the Professor, holding the book up so he could see it from where he was sitting across the aisle from him.

"Something about Spirit Reinforcement, it's really hard to make out," he ran his finger along the text translating what words he could. "Protect… bender… second bender… upper back and neck… I think it's saying that one Energy Bender can protect the spirit of another Bender by reinforcing the other's spirit with their own using these hand positions. Then I believe it goes on to say something about the binding being very intimate. 'All lies, deception, love and truth will be laid bare'."

"Interesting, not exactly what I need but I'll remember that one," Aang said as he mimicked the hand positions.

"How about this," Katara was also nose deep in massive tomes. "It's an analysis of energy benders abilities from a previous recording. 'A bender of sufficient experience, control and self knowledge can influence another person to give the ability or inability to Bend their own energy.' I think it means that if you practiced enough with your Spirit Bending you'd be able to pass on your Air Bending to other people, if you know yourself well enough."

"Great, where am I going to find someone willing to let me practice Spirit Bending on them?" Aang asked as he rolled back onto the floor. They were making progress but it seemed that every time they made as step in the right direction there was another more complicated step to take. This certainly didn't look as simple as it did when he first came up with the idea.

"Well, I hope you guys have made progress," Toph came around the corner. "I've stubbed my toes on about a hundred books walking around this place. "This place isn't going anywhere. The damage to the archways, domes, and pillars are making this place pretty fragile. Were lucky the ground around here is so stable. We can repair a lot of the damage to make it safe to enter but we cannot bring it to the surface again. So were just going to have to build an elevator system to get people down here. Less convenient, but acceptable." Kytah and Katara both looked at her like she was crazy to think it would be more convenient to raise a colossal build from a mile underground back to the surface rather than just building an elevator in the shaft Aang had already made.


End file.
